Technology

Axios reports: Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the aircraft maker is having “ongoing conversations” with its airline customers about possible reimbursements following the grounding of its 737 MAX during an interview with Axios’ Mike Allen at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Wednesday. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people, highlighting concerns about …

The Wall Street Journal reports: McDonald’s is testing voice-recognition software at a drive-through in suburban Chicago. Inside the restaurant, a robot also tosses chicken, fish and fries into vats of oil. Both technologies are meant to shorten customer wait times that executives acknowledge have grown in recent years. McDonald’s also has stopped serving some burgers and given franchisees more control …

The Daily Beast reports: In a software tweak first spotted by a developer forum, YouTube is toying with eliminating the comments section that accompanies videos on its mobile app. As it stands now, comments appear when a user scrolls below a video’s sharing buttons and “Up Next” recommended videos. The change would significantly downgrade the prominence of comments on the …

The BBC reports: Bank of England Governor Mark Carney gave Facebook’s proposed digital currency Libra a cautious welcome in a major speech on Thursday. He said it could substantially lower costs and increase financial inclusion, but needs regulation. Mr Carney also announced that non-banks will be able to hold Bank of England accounts. And he highlighted climate and sustainability concerns. …

Newsweek reports: A U.K. dating app is approaching the matchmaking process in a whole new way, one that has the potential to abolish someone’s ego. The app, called Once, has updated its service to include a ranking of the app user’s attractiveness. The number rating, which ranges from one to five seemingly based on a user’s physical appearance, is said …

The Washington Post reports: Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date. But we already know this. What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit. New …

Axios reports: After nearly a year of speculation, Facebook has finally unveiled its plans to create a cryptocurrency, which will be called Libra and debut in 2020. With more than two billion users, Facebook is arguably better positioned to roll out a global digital currency than any other company, government, or organization. That’s also a source of concern over how …

The Verge reports: Having admitted that its glossy “trash can” Mac Pro of 2013 was a mistake, Apple has long promised that the next update to its most professional computer line would be a return to more modular, less thermally constrained computing. That is being realized today at WWDC 2019 with the official debut of an all-new redesigned Apple Mac …

Bloomberg News reports: Apple Inc.’s developer conference beginning Monday will move the company closer to a future in which the iPhone is no longer the central cog for other products and services. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and other leaders will make a keynote presentation at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, to unveil updates of Apple’s operating …

CNET reports: As Samsung continues its figure out its Galaxy Fold problems, a recent patent suggests we might be getting closer to seeing Apple’s version of a foldable device. On Tuesday, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to Apple for a “foldable cover and display for an electronic device.” There are no specifics on whether this display …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration’s ban on goods produced by a Chinese tech giant would seem to have little to do with rural America. But rural cell service providers across the U.S. are almost entirely dependent on the company, Huawei, which produces inexpensive wireless communications equipment. These small telecom companies now face billions of dollars in costs or the …

Axios reports: An electronic radar system called TrackMan will soon be calling balls and strikes in the Atlantic League, an independent East Coast league that has emerged as MLB’s testing ground for new rules and equipment initiatives. In a simple test to make sure that TrackMan data could be successfully transmitted and understood, home plate umpires were fitted with earpieces …

Wired reports: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the use of facial recognition by city agencies, a first-of-its-kind measure that has inspired similar efforts elsewhere. San Francisco’s ban covers government agencies, including the city police and county sheriff’s department, but doesn’t affect the technology that unlocks your iPhone or cameras installed by businesses or individuals. It’s …

The Associated Press reports: Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd said on Monday it had agreed to a request by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to sell popular gay dating app Grindr, setting a June 2020 deadline to do so. Kunlun’s decision came after Reuters reported in March that CFIUS, an inter-agency government …

Reuters reports: Facebook’s WhatsApp urged users to upgrade to the latest version of its popular messaging app after reporting that users might be vulnerable to having malicious spyware installed on phones without their knowledge. Earlier, the Financial Times (FT) reported that a vulnerability in WhatsApp allowed attackers to inject spyware on phones by ringing up targets using the app’s phone …

The Associated Press reports: San Francisco is on track to become the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition by police and other city agencies, reflecting a growing backlash against a technology that’s creeping into airports, motor vehicle departments, stores, stadiums and home security cameras. Government agencies around the U.S. have used the technology for more than …

USA Today reports: The Supreme Court opened the door Monday for iPhone users to sue Apple over excessive prices on its exclusive App Store. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the 5-4 opinion and was joined by the court’s four liberal justices. The other four conservatives dissented. The question before the justices was whether consumers’ beef over prices is with Apple …

CNN reports: Russia is one step closer to creating its own, independent internet—at least legally speaking. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law new measures that would enable the creation of a national network, able to operate separately from the rest of the world, according to documents posted on a government portal on Wednesday. For now, the network remains …

The New York Times reports: Mark Zuckerberg declared last month that he planned to shift Facebook away from being a public town square and to private communications. Now the chief executive is rolling out the first in a series of changes to achieve that. On Tuesday at its annual developer conference, Facebook unveiled a redesign of its mobile app and …

Wired reports: You’ve seen the ads in your email or online: Celebrities supposedly hawking miracle weight loss cures or galaxy brain supplements. They’re at this point endemic to the web, as deeply ingrained as hashtags and puppies. But even though plenty of people fall for them, no one ever really does anything about it. Of all the security threats online, …